Dead Reckoning: Silvermoon Isle Collector's Edition Reviews

A nice HOG with good visuals and a engaging story. The puzzles are OK although sometimes the HOG puzzles tend to blend / hide an object too much. Don't expect much logic in the puzzles, a common problem with this type of games. It's not up to par with Artifex Mundi production level, but close and much better compared to the average HOG.

Nice work! Some new puzzels and they even put additional HOPs in the extras. Took me about 3 hours to complete game and bonus chapter, so price is ok. Only thing missing: Steam Achievements....

\Somehow Eipex must have learned from every other gamemakers' mistakes. This game keeps all locations in the main game open and accessible even if you have cleared them. This helps when you realize you missed a collectible and need to go back. No idea why developers think it's better to eliminate locations to make things "easier." Another great thing about this game is it feels more alive and interactive than most adventure games. At one point you have to drip wax on something and the wax actually drips where you click. It isn't some prescribed location like most of these games. At another point, you have to use chalk to draw constellations. Again, the chalk follows your clicking, not the other way around. Puzzles were varied and not at all repetitive. It gets a little backtracky during the bonus chapter, but that's to be expected. All in all, wonderful game from Eipex. I hope the next few in the series are the exact same though developers often try to change things up which winds up ruining things and blowing the game all to hell.

After you've played a few HOPAs (hidden object puzzle adventure, a genre of casual games that developed out of hidden object games) by Eipix, you will notice certain patterns: 1) Locks, tons of locks that require shaped parts to open. 2) Objects just randomly scattered around the world for no discernible reason 3) Plots with some amount of cheesiness in them that play in a kind of parallel world's past, which must be the explanation for the strange anachronisms (polaroid cameras in the 1940s?) and other differences to our world And you know what? This game is no exception. And I still recommend it, because overall, it's fun. The plot of this one is a classical whodunit: Movie star Veronica West has washed ashore dead, and the suspects are her friends and family that are all trapped on her private island. When you go to pay them a visit, you find the genre-typical web of secrets and lies that makes it hard to see the real culprit from the start. As for lies, this is where the game innovates (or takes "inspiration" from LA Noire) a bit: There are a few interrogation sequences where you have to prove whether suspects are telling the truth or lying. That's usually very easy (casual games!), but I still appreciated it. There is also a case file that holds all the clues you find, but it's actually not necessary to solve the case. Other than that, the game consists of what you would expect from a HOPA: Lots of easy puzzles, hidden object scenes and minigames that range from very easy to slightly demanding (and none of which repeat, which is also appreciated). There are also the usual extra/comfortable features you may know from other Eipix games: A mini-map that shows you where there are open tasks (very handy), bonus collectibles (most backgrounds have a hidden star & most HOGs a hidden morphing object) and an alternative minigame if you don't feel like searching a HOG's objects (a bubble shooter that is more demanding than previous titles' match-three games). All in all, just right for some quality casual gaming.